How COVID-19 affects farmers and the food supply chain

Empty shelves lining supermarkets, farmers dumping milk and abandoning fields of crops, restaurants laying off staff—the American food landscape has changed dramatically in just a month, thanks to stay-at-home advisories and social distancing in the age of COVID-19. But how is the food supply chain and its workers affected? What foods are now less available to which people, and what can we expect going forward? We don't yet have all the answers, according to Timothy Griffin, William Masters, and Jennifer Hashley of Tufts University's Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy. The COVID-19 crisis is still unfolding, consumers and food system players are still adjusting, and the growing season in many places has yet to hit full swing. But COVID-19 has certainly called attention to the weaknesses and inequities of our food system—and to the need, and the opportunity, to address them, the three experts agreed. Read more....